Infamous Ghost Stories In Singapore’s Polytechnics And Universities – As Told By Students

You may have forgotten everything you’ve studied, but there are some things that will stick with you even after you’ve graduated and gone on to ‘adult life’. The chill out sessions with your buddies, the delicious yet cheap food from the canteens, and the many student discounts. Ah, fun times.

Something else you’ll never forget: the infamous ghost stories in your school. The ones that have been passed down through generations. Those that seniors love sharing at orientation camps, because nothing helps the freshies bond a little faster than instilling some fear in them before a night walk right?

Since Halloween is round the corner, we’ve put together a list of ghost stories in Singapore’s polytechnics and universities, as told by students and alumnus – so you can ‘relive’ your poly or uni experience through these legendary tales.

Republic Polytechnic

Image Credit: iZahar

Eerie Presence at E2 Building

Most RP students will agree that there’s just something about the E2 building that makes it very eerie. Maybe it’s the lack of natural light or the maze of dimly lit corridors, but people always felt like someone or something was watching them when they walked along the corridors.

Sally, E2 Building

In one of the most popular stories of E2, there’s a little girl called Sally who haunts the building. They say that she’s a lonely child and if you say her name three times at Level 3, she will appear and ask you to play with her.

Haunted Toilets

There are multiple accounts of sightings and feelings of unease when you use the toilets at W6 or W3 (just to name a few). Some say that there is always one cubicle that’s locked from the inside even though it’s empty, and it cannot be unlocked either. Others say you can hear weird noises like the running of the tap or even a girl crying from inside the cubicle even though there’s no one.

Grandmother and Grandson

It’s supposed to be against the rules for students to stay overnight in the Club Rooms but a group of students decided to sleep overnight in their club room after finishing up some work.

At night, they locked the room and turned off the lights so that the security guards wouldn’t see them. In the middle of the night, they heard a knock on the door but they just hid because they thought it was the security guard going on his rounds. After awhile, they heard another knock. This time, it was louder. Then, they heard the voice of an old woman asking, “did you see my grandchild?”

Legend has it that it was the grandmother who had lost her grandson there and that till this day, the grandson is still lurking around the RP Fountain.

Singapore Polytechnic

The Red Bridge

Image Credit: Gigcasa

As the oldest poly in Singapore, you’re sure find many terrifying tales of it, each with its own variations.

The most infamous is The Red Bridge at the school of Business and CASS. They say that back then, a girl jumped off the bridge and when she landed on the ground, her blood splattered up onto the bridge. The blood stains could never be washed off completely and would always reappear even after being painted over, so the school decided to paint the whole bridge red to mask the stains.

Some people have also said that you shouldn’t walk near the sides of the bridge as the girl’s spirit will attempt to pull you off the bridge and join her in her realm.

The U-Shape Toilets

There are some U-shape toilets around the main library and many students have felt strange vibes whenever they use those toilets.

It’s said that in one of the orientation camps, a freshie got possessed in one of the U-shape toilets when he stopped there as part of their night walk route. Despite his very small frame, he had the strength of almost 10 persons and even the biggest guy in the camp couldn’t restrain him. They only managed to chase the spirit away when they called a medium down to help.

Rumour has it that this incident is also the reason why SP ‘banned’ night walks.

Temasek Polytechnic

Image Credit: picturomatic

Design School Toilet

There’s one toilet in design school that’s been said to be haunted. Once, a girl went to shower in that toilet alone late at night. While showering, she heard someone kicking open the first cubical door. The person, or ghost, then kicked open the second cubical door, and as it did each door, it counted down in Malay.

When it was reaching the girl’s cubicle, which was the last one, the ghost went, “Satu Laaagi”, which translates to mean “one more”. Some sources said the girl fainted, others say she hightailed out before the ghost reached her.

The Little Boy at School of Engineering

It’s normal for orientation camp leaders to patrol the camp area at night, but in one particular night, two camp leaders experienced something not so normal.

They saw a small boy running in the distance on their patrol and decided to chase the boy to find out why he was there. They kept chasing the boy and shouted at him to stop but the boy didn’t. When the camp leaders were climbing up the stairs at the engineering block, the boy started playing hide-and-seek with them. Eventually, the boy disappeared.

Sensing that that was odd, the camp leaders reported the sighting to the security guard. The security guard then came with a guard dog to comb the building but they didn’t find the boy. However, the dog kept barking at one particular corner. All of them felt that something wasn’t right so they quickly left the area and pretended nothing happened.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

As the second oldest poly and rumoured to be built atop a cemetery, Ngee Ann Polytechnic is also known to have many paranormal hotspots.

Freak Accident at the Engineering Workshop

Rumour has it that a girl got her hair stuck in a machine, had her scalp ripped off, and died in one of the engineering workshops. Some people claim that you can still hear her screams when you walk pass the workshop at night.

Blocks 50 to 53

They say that beneath the hilly terrain of blocks 50 to 53 lie the bunkers that were used back in the day, and it’s the reason behind the countless stories of hauntings at these blocks.

For one, the railings at block 52 or 53 are said to be painted red for the same reason as SP’s Red Bridge – someone had committed suicide there and the blood stains could never be removed.

As for the notorious block 50, you’ll notice that the lift only brings you to the sixth floor even though the block actually had seven floors. The staircase to the seventh floor is blocked too, so it’s believed that if you do get to the seventh floor, you’ll start seeing things like people burning incense, and bad luck will follow you.

The female toilet on the third floor of block 50 is also known to be extremely haunted. In one scary tale, five Student Union members visited that toilet late at night only to anger the ‘residents’ there.

Image Credit: Unintentional Encounters @ NP

They were there to recce the place for the upcoming camp’s night walk. Four of them had the third eye and sensed a very strong presence the moment they were at the door, so they went in while the one guy who didn’t have the third eye waited outside for safety reasons.

The foursome initially saw just one spirit and tried to ask for its permission to use the toilet as part of their night walk, but it didn’t go well and one by one, more spirits appeared in front of them. Time passed as the students tried to appease them, but the situation got worse. It was only when the one guy who waited outside came in to check when they grabbed the opportunity to run out.

During the debrief session, the one guy said that he couldn’t see the foursome in the toilet mirrors at all even though they were directly across the mirrors. It was then that they realised, instead of the 7 or 8 spirits that they thought they saw, there were actually so many other spirits surrounding them that their reflections were completely blocked from the mirrors.

The next morning, they made offerings to the spirits and placed them outside the toilet to pacify them.

School of Business and Accountancy’s Camps

According to a BA alumnus, the BA camp committee is known to be very ‘siao on’ with their night walks, even using real obituary photos as décor and splashing animal blood on them, which led to many unexplainable incidents on their night walks.

One such is the use of this very old photo of an ah ma (grandmother), which has been passed down from batch to batch to use as a night walk tradition. Seniors have reported incidents where people have fainted when they walked past or saw the photo. One guy even bled when he fainted and hit his head after seeing this photo.

In another night walk incident, one of the committee members, a girl, was dressed up as a mannequin and campers had to brush her hair to pass the station. As the girl was wearing a used wig, it made her itch and she felt uncomfortable. During the debriefing, she thanked the team for assigning someone to be there behind her all night to help comb her hair, scratch the itch, and ask if she was alright. But there was no one there with her the whole night.

National University of Singapore

Headless Ghost (Bukit Timah Campus)

Not only were there signs put up warning students about the ghost of a headless woman roaming the campus, it was even reported in a Singapore newspaper, Sin Chew Daily. It’s said that the headless woman is dressed in all white and would wander the upper quadrant of Federal building.

Other spirits have also been known to haunt the building corridors, making lights flicker and chairs and tables to move by themselves at night.

South Buona Vista Road (Kent Ridge Campus)

Image Credit: Haiqel Adanan

Those in the Kent Ridge Campus would know of the female ghost haunting South Buona Vista Road.

In one particular story, three friends were driving back to NUS along South Buona Vista Road late at night. All three friends (who were in three separate cars) and their girlfriends saw a young woman running out of the forest onto the road. They slammed on the brakes, then all of them heard a loud bang.

They all thought the first car had hit the woman, so they got out to check. But they couldn’t find anyone. They even looked under the car and at the surrounding forest area but couldn’t find anything.

When the first driver was reporting the incident, the policeman froze at the mention of ‘South Buona Vista Road’. He warned them, “if I were you, I’d go to the nearest temple or church or whatever you believe in, and go cleanse your cars and wash your hands and faces. This is not the first or second time this was reported.”

Wailings at Kent Ridge Halls (Kent Ridge Campus)

Some say that you’ll hear the cries of a female spirit searching for her lost child in the old Kent Ridge Halls building. It’s believed that the hall office even got a Chinese shaman in to stop these wailings, who then instructed a door to be built to open up to the place of this spirit’s lost child.

Urban Legends or True Stories of Misadventures?

We may not have Pennywise or Chucky in Singapore, but we do have plenty of ghost stories in schools to go around. Are the rumours true, or are they just tales created out of paranoia? We will never know, but one thing’s for sure: you should never ‘clown around’ when it comes to such paranormal matters.

Do you have other horror stories of your school? Share them with us in the comments!

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